Memorizing the Katakana/Tough characters

The difference between shi and tsu is in their stroke direction.

Several katakana look similar to one another and may cause confusion. These are:

シ and ン

シ and ン are well remembered as smiley faces looking towards the right. The one with both eyes is a shi (she), while the one with one eye has a nice eyepatch. The short strokes on the top slant towards the right, while the same strokes for ツ and ソ slant downwards.

ツ and ソ

ツ and ソ are well remembered as rating systems for waves at a beach. The short lines represent the rating (or people on the beach) and the long line the coastline. A rating of 2 short stokes means tsunami, and the people are running away, while a rating of 1 short stroke means soft or so-so waves, with a single person relaxing on the beach.

ウ and ワ

ウ, the umbrella, has a ferrule on its top while ワ, the flipped over wagon, does not.

ヲ and ヨ

ヲ, the 3 and World War I, is more rounded like a real hand-written 3.

ケ and ク

In ケ, the cane (ke), the second stroke which represents the hand extends over the top of the cane. In ク, the cup (ku) handle, the handle is nice and smooth.